Our Design & Manufacturing Process

The Monkey Grip Tape measures in 3 Meter, Making it a sizeable and practical length.

The Monkey Grip tape can hold up to 1.5 Kg on any smooth clean surface. But we do recommend that you test the surface and weight of the item before affixing anything heavy to a wall or surface. Like with any adhesive, Monkey Grip cannot bond well with dirt, dust, moisture or porous surfaces. So be sure that the surface and object are clean, non-porous and dirt and dust free for the best results!

OUR FORMULA:

The Gel formula we have created for Monkey Grip is a unique blend of Polyurethane Elastomer made by a specific reaction between the Prepolymer and Curative. When working with this type of material there are 5 variables that when each react a certain way, create a unique result. This is the reason that Gel products have such a wide range of uses, some are used in Bras and Shoes, they are not sticky at all, but still have a gel consistency. While some gel products have the same consistency while they also hold adhesive properties strong enough to be used in automobile manufacturing.

The Manufacturing process we use to make the Monkey Grip formula is as follows and some of you may have heard of it before. In it's most basic terminology it can be described as an A / B reaction formula. The Prepolymer material (the 'A') and what is called the Curative (the 'B') come together and depending of the 5 variables, amount of A, amount of B, temperature of mould plate, substrate temperature (the temperature of A and B) and timing of mixture, we can see different results and a vastly different product. The prepolymer consists of an isocyanate (or an NCO) that reacts with the hydroxyl (OH) in the curative, which creates the adhesive qualities depending on the above variables. All the five variables, were tested in over 55 combinations to finally come to the current formula we now use for The Monkey Grip. The Monkey Grip formula takes all these variables into account to create a 'upper middle ground' gel pad. The end result is a Gel Pad that has a strong core, making it durable, while having a high amount of adhesive properties but not so much that will rip paint off or damage walls. By applying particular quantities of the prepolymer and the curative at varying temperatures, we found many different styles of gel pad could be made at various levels of adhesive and so through much testing, we found a result we were happy with.

We are currently working with Patent lawyers to patent our particular formula and manufacturing methods. However, we have found that chemical patents are expensive to process and often times difficult and also expensive to enforce. So we are still looking into channels for a chemical patent, while also looking into other forms of patent such as manufacturing styles.

Prototypes and Design Process:

As mentioned above, we use an A/B curing method to create our own formula for Monkey Grip. To create Monkey Grip Tape we cure our A/B formula on large plates, these plates are 5m x 1m. But can be 5m x 2-3m. This means that once our A/B formula has cured and everything has set, Monkey Grip Tape is rolled up into large rolls 1 - 3m long. They are then precision cut to into 3cm widths which make up our Monkey Grip Tape!

Our very first tests and our very first prototype and manufacturing test was white! The Monkey Grip Tape formula originally performed best when it reacted and cured with a dye that we added to the mix. We later found that this in fact was unreliable and being white, obviously, would lose it's color and get very dirty very quickly.

Here you can see the original White Cured Formula now being rolled into it's 3m roll Pre-Cutting.

After some time, tests, 34 prototypes and a trip to Dongguan, China to meet 'Woods', our Manufacturing Manager at the factory we have partnered with, we came to the realization that the white style was not suitable. As mentioned earlier. This is when we began testing the 'Clear' style and immediately had better and more reliable results.

Our first clear test was completed and we had much better results!

Our first 'clear' style formula prototype was a great leap forward. However we did not like the use of the white outer protective sheeting. So we started making our prototypes with a clear removable protective film, as you can see below.

Our second clear prototype was slightly wider than our current 3cm Monkey Grip Tape and measure in at 4cm wide and 4mm thick. We had a great result with this, but it made the roll and tape too bulky. As you can see in the above image!

As we had now decided on the clear gel formula and it's results we're, overall, much better that the white, the next step was to decide on the exact thickness, width and length of Monkey Grip. While all along we had wanted to create a roll of Gel Adhesive tape, we toyed with the idea of making long strips as well, but this only survived one prototype test as none of us liked it and it was impractical for shipping and storage.

As you can see above, we tested the strips in different sizes and lengths but we decided against this very quickly and went back to the idea of the Roll.

Now that we had decided on the rolls, at 3 cm wide, and 3mm thick, we needed to do some more tests with some more prototypes to discover the perfect length. As pictured above, we toyed with 2.5m (8.2ft), 5m (16.5ft) and 10m (32.8ft) lengths. We found that the 3 m length was by far the most practical in regards to everyday use, storage and shipping. And so after some more testing and some final adjustments to our gel formula, The Monkey Grip Tape was born!

Above is an example of the Monkey Grip Tape rolls being cut from the longer production rolls. Here, the main roll is rotated while a fast spinning saw blade cuts the rolls into 3cm widths. It is done with machine precision accuracy, leaving a perfect cut each time!